GAS PIPELINE BETWEEN MALTA AND SICILY

The Maltese Government has formally applied for permits with the Maltese and Italian authorities concerned to construct a gas pipeline between Malta and Sicily. The pipeline is expected to be 151 kilometres long linking the south of Malta to Gela and targeted to be completed within seven years.

The project will be entitled to European Union funding as the European Commission stated that this is a project of common interest for Europe as EU member states should not be isolated from the European gas network.

The applications submitted by the Maltese Government request permits to begin infrastructural works between Gela in Sicily and Delimara in the south of Malta where currently the power station is being supplied with gas by a stationary docked tanker.

The Maltese Minister for Energy Joe Mizzi confirmed that applications were submitted to the Italian Ministry for Economic Development and the Malta Planning Authority.

The European law posits a period of three and a half years for the processing of such permits thus the Maltese government is expecting formal permits to be issued by latest 2020 so that within the following four years the gas pipeline between Malta and Sicily will be complete.

Environmental and technical studies including a marine survey of the sea route are planned for next year. The survey will cost €8 million and may qualify for EU funding.

Last June a second study determined the best route for the gas pipeline between Malta and Sicily that will be approximately half a metre wide.